From Bosco's Eyes
by AV21
Summary: Couldn't help but wonder what Bosco was thinking all those times he got to watch Jane and Lisbon interact, so I wrote it. Jisbon, but from the perspective of Bosco.
1. Redemption

a/n: Yay for the end of term! And yay for getting re-addicted to The Mentalist! I just kept wondering what Bosco was thinking during those scenes he got to watch Jane and Lisbon. So these few pieces will all be, as the title signifies, from Bosco's perspective on one of my favorite pairings.

* * *

The whole building had been talking ever since the call came in that morning. Bosco heard the security guards at the front desk giving the cliff notes version to everyone checking in, (Though they were more impressed that Jane had caught the guy inside of three minutes and with less than thirty words). His new unit had been discussing the latest 'Jane Incident.' (Like Minelli, they were more concerned with the dead suspect and the damage to the CBI's reputation). When Bosco came out of his introductory meeting he found his secretary gossiping with some other women about how the CBI couldn't get rid of Jane, he was too good, and no matter how crazy he got they'd never transfer him to anyone else. (Apparently he'd either get himself shot or cause such havoc that Minelli would send him back to a waiting Lisbon with apology flowers and some jewelry).

In fact, the only people in CBI Headquarters who weren't talking about the latest escapade of Patrick Jane were busy playing catch in the Serious Crimes bullpen. They didn't need to hear the details of whatever had happened, because Teresa's team knew Jane well enough to fill out the story for themselves.

Before today Bosco had worked very hard to keep from looking into Teresa's time at the CBI. He knew she was on the Red John case, but every cop worth his salt knew that. He stopped himself from prying into other cases, reviewing her team members, or talking to anyone at the CBI about her before his transfer was official. And he hadn't meant to snap today and look into her life here, but then the whole damn office wouldn't shut up.

He knew heard what the secretaries were implying about Teresa and this Jane character and her reasons for stepping in to defend him. Though his team didn't seem to agree with the staff's view of the situation, he could still hear the disdain in their tone that Teresa's crew was willing to stand this guy when they should be throwing him out. In fact, beyond all reason, they seemed to enjoy him.

So, Bosco had glanced over their personnel files. Not examined them, just glanced. And his team had been right. Cho, Rigsby, and Van Pelt were all good agents with no real black marks on their records, but there _were_ some warning flags. Things that they would have been fried for if Teresa hadn't stepped in and taken the hit. Things that didn't start until they associated with Patrick Jane.

The man in question had an impressive file of closed cases with very vague mentions to the rules he'd snapped to close those cases, and Bosco was sure both those things were down to Teresa. Her handiwork was all over Jane's file, editing out shots of rebellion and distilling them through impressive understatement until you would only know the extent of Jane's recklessness and disregard for the law if you talked to the people who'd been forced to deal with him.

Bosco interrupted his 'glancing' over the files when time came to report to Minelli's office and break the news of his transfer to Teresa. Bosco could hear Minelli through the wall, scolding both Teresa and Jane for the incident this morning. "I fear a terminal screw up is coming."

"That's not gonna happen. I can handle him." Bosco crashed to a stop outside Minelli's office at the sound of her voice. Five years. Five years and he still couldn't breath properly when he heard the sound of her voice.

It took him a moment, but when Bosco heard Minelli question Teresa, "Can you?" He found the strength to walk again. He'd seen enough of the files and heard enough gossip in the course of this morning to know how her concern for Jane looked to Minelli, and more than that Bosco knew what this fool was doing to her career. He stepped into Minelli's sightline and listened to the end of the rant. "Maybe since he saved your life you're going easy on him. Maybe you feel compelled to cut him some slack."

"No sir, that is absolutely not the case." She was lying. Partially. Bosco knew that tone, and it meant she wasn't exactly lying about not cutting him slack, but she wasn't telling the truth about it either. Probably meant she wasn't cutting him any more slack than she usually did.

Minelli shouted and waived him in, "Hey Sam! Get in here."

Bosco steeled his nerves for the meeting about to come. In some deep dark spot he hoped that the sight of him would make Teresa abandon Jane and demand to be transferred to his team, but he had a feeling it was going to be tougher than that. He just nodded to Teresa, "Lisbon."

"Bosco." Anyone who didn't know her like he knew her would've missed her shock.

"Agent Bosco and his unit are taking over the Red John case." Well, Minelli obviously wasn't one for easing in, and under circumstances where they weren't about to get yelled at, Bosco would've appreciated that quality.

Jane hadn't even bothered to look at Bosco when he'd walked in to the room, which tore Bosco between insult and pride. Sure, he was a little irritated that Jane didn't think he was worth looking at, but he also had to stifle a flare of ego that the golden boy hadn't caught the shock in Teresa's voice and wondered who triggered it.

"You have always been too close to the case. And now _both_ of you are _way_ too close. We need to make a change." Jane didn't like not being in control. Bosco could've told you that the second he'd walked in the door, and now Minelli had robbed Jane of enough control to force him to his feet and finally look like he was paying attention.

Teresa stepped in before Jane could start yelling at Minelli in his desperate attempt to turn the tables, "Can we talk about this?"

"No. You've worked for agent Bosco." Ahh, there we go. Jane finally deigned to look at him, eyes quickly glancing him up and down. "You know that he'll do the job right." Bosco gave Jane an up-down himself. This was the first time he'd gotten a proper look at Jane, (outside the newspaper articles, that Bosco would never admit to reading, the ones with pictures that always had Jane standing too close to Teresa).

That glance was all Bosco needed to know the rumors were wrong. Jane looked like a kid. There was no intensity to him, no real strength, just _rage_. All the stories about the daring things Jane had done, and all he'd been through made Bosco expect a tougher looking guy, someone stronger than this boy. His daring wasn't from courage, he just felt the need to prove himself against a whole building full of better men than him. The actual sight of Patrick Jane was more comforting than Bosco ever thought it could be. Maybe this would be a good meeting after all.

Or not. "You need to let my team finish what they started." Teresa was mad, and this was going to be his fault.

"Teresa, no offense, but you guys aren't even close to catching this guy. Fresh set of eyes gotta be a good idea."

"What do you know about the case?" Ahh, there was more of that rage. Only rather than just letting it spray off him waves like he must usually do, it was aimed at Bosco now. Like a two-year-old in a temper tantrum. Eventually Jane's anger would burn out and dissolve into the self-pity and despair that Jane must be more comfortable dealing with. Bosco had nothing to worry about. …Not that he had ever been worried about Jane. Or he had anything to be worried about where Teresa was concerned.

"Not much. It's a serial killer. 15 victims. Including your wife and child. I can imagine your pain." Bosco was just poking at the kid's wounds, seeing how easy he would be to push to the limit. Considering that he looked to be halfway there already, Bosco thought it was a credit to Teresa that she'd kept him alive this long. "Maybe that pain is clouding your judgment."

"Well …" The kid almost sounded resigned to the fact, but he looked back to Minelli, waiting for him to say it was all a hoax to teach Jane a lesson. But Minelli killed that dream when he nodded his head that this was sticking. And like the spoiled child he was, Jane just walked out of the room.

Teresa glared at them both, fire in her eyes that Bosco had only seen her use on abusers. "And me Sam, what's clouding my judgment?" Bosco saw some of Jane's rage in her eyes too. Damn, she wanted to protect the kid. Maybe Bosco did have something to be nervous about. Not that he was giving the gossips the credit of being right, but maybe she actually wanted to keep Jane around.

"Good question. You tell me." Teresa left the room, following after Jane, and all Bosco could do was close his eyes and sigh. Five years. Five years since he'd seen her and in her heart she was partnered with a freak show.

That could have gone better.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The kid had scheduled a meeting. He'd called Bosco's secretary and scheduled an appointment. Almost like he was a _real_ grownup. Jane blew on to the rooftop restaurant five minutes late and with a smile Bosco almost mistook for real. "Hey, sorry I'm late, had traffic. What are you having?" Jane grinned wider and reached for his wallet, but Bosco reached for his own instead.

"What are _you_ having?" Jane gave a pleasantly surprised smirk in return. Smug kid probably thought Bosco would be tight with his money. He just ordered at bottle of water, probably not wanting to be too far in Bosco's debt. He ordered his own dog with kraut and tossed Jane his measly bottle of water. How Hollywood of him. A bottle of water. Seriously, who does that?

The kid at least had the decency to overcome his shock and say thank you. And even though Bosco would've done it anyway, he left gave the vendor a generous tip and got a little extra joy out of defying whatever stereotype Jane thought he had Bosco boxed into. Bosco had learned the value of folks in the service industry in his years on the force; learned that when no one else knew anything about a victim, the guy who served him lunch or his after work drinks always had something valuable to say. Treat 'em right and they tell you plenty.

"Well, I'm not gonna lie, I'm not happy I'm off the Red John Case." That was putting in mildly. After the way the last meeting had gone Bosco had read through every case file Jane ever touched, even those he did off the books for other departments. The man was obsessed. "You might be right. Fresh set of eyes might be what's needed." Lying through his teeth, that's what the kid was doing. Bosco had done it to suspects a million times. Make them think you understand why they did what they did so they'll open up and start trusting you.

"Here's the thing, Sam. If I may. I know this case. I could be a very good resource for you. If we could just come to some kind of an understanding." This was not happening. Bosco must not be as intimidating as he thought if the kid thought that being polite and calling him Sam meant that any sort of 'understanding' could be reached. Understanding meant bribery or blackmail, and even though Bosco knew it was what Jane wanted, he was beginning to lose his temper.

"You want me to keep you up to date on the case."

"Sure."

"Tell you about fresh leads, etc."

"Yeah, let's just keep an open line of communication." Jane was starting to get excited, like he actually believed Bosco might really be on his side. In response Bosco took as large a bite of his hot dog as he could manage without choking on it. Jane didn't like the sight of the hot dog, Bosco could tell, and though it was juvenile of him, he wanted to make Jane uncomfortable. It churned his stomach at the implication behind Jane expecting Bosco to cave because he was an old friend of Teresa's. It said something about Jane's relationship with Teresa that he thought he affection would guarantee him amnesty with Bosco.

"My wife has me on a diet. This is like committing adultery here." Jane smiled back at Bosco's joke, but it wasn't real. There was a genuine flicker of disgust that Bosco was all right with making adultery jokes. That and the ring still on Jane's hand told him that whatever influence Jane had over Teresa, he wouldn't go to her bed until he'd killed Red John with his own two hands. Another reason to keep the case. Not that he cared who Teresa spent her nights with, just so long as it wasn't Jane.

"Let me communicate this to you. You're a party entertainer, a clown." Jane kept his smile in place, but his eyes turned dark at being degraded by someone he had read as closer to a friend. "Fresh leads? I wouldn't tell you where the bathroom was if you ass was on fire." Jane laughed again, but this time he had his walls back up and finally grasped what sort of man he was dealing with. "Do we have a good understanding now?"

"I understand you. It may take you some time to understand me." Ahh, there was that rage again. His fall back emotion when he didn't know what else to do.

Bosco couldn't stop himself; he wanted to watch the boy squirm. "You're filled with equal parts self loathing and self love. You're addicted to control. You're terrified of confinement."

"Who's my favorite Beatle?" Bosco just smirked at the kid, knowing that he was interrupting to throw him off. Jane didn't know how to fight good, solid facts with his shiny trickery. Bosco wasn't entirely proud of himself for torturing Jane, but this rat had been manipulating Teresa for too long and she was too kind to notice. It was ending here.

"Your wife wanted you to quite the psychic trade. She begged you to stop. But you were making too much money, you were having too much fun." This boy had hurt his Teresa. He'd spent years using her to try and making himself feel whole again, bleeding her dry to keep his rage fueled, because without it he was a shell. Bosco wanted to see him bleed. "You can still hear her pleading with you. How'm I doing?"

"You can read the interviews in my case file. You can read, very impressive." And gone was all that precious control that Jane loved so much. Bosco really didn't understand how this kid had survived so long when it was so easy to shove him to the edge.

Bosco put his hand on Jane's shoulder, the best attempt he would make to comfort the kid. A better man would feel bad about taking away the only things that kept this boy going, but he would rather strip him of what kept him alive than let him anywhere near Teresa ever again. "Look, Patrick, I'm sorry to be so blunt with you."

Jane put his hand on Bosco's shoulder in retaliation, and Bosco saw some fight come back into those hollow green eyes. More rage than fight, but still. "Really."

Bosco pulled his hand back to where Jane could see it. "You're not a detective. You're a victim." And with that he left Jane standing with that thought, and the hope that when Jane resigned for the second time this week he'd stay gone.


	2. The Scarlet Letter

First off, yay for reviews! And second off, my apologies that this guy is short, but not a whole lot of Bosco-y material here. However, look forward to the next ep, that one has to be long.

* * *

Jane had been waiting in Bosco's office. Alone, in Bosco's office, for almost half an hour.

Needless to say, Bosco had the place swept for bugs and cameras as soon as Teresa's team was out of the office. He hadn't thought about it before, but he decided that getting his offices swept for bugs every few months would be a good idea with Jane running around.

At the sight of Jane, Bosco had just sighed and dismissed his secretary with more force than he'd intended, a fact Bosco filed away for later. So he could both remember to apologize to Rebecca (she really was a sweet lady), and to worry about the fact that just _seeing_ Jane put him in a dangerously foul mood. "Get away from my desk."

"Where'd you go? I've been here almost half an hour." It didn't help Bosco's steadily building irritation that Jane seemed comfortable sitting in Bosco's office and mouthing off.

"And stop hacking my pass codes, and stop hustling my people. It's not doing you any good you know."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Bosco just bit the inside of his mouth and didn't reply. His last attempt to drive Jane out by pushing him to the edge hadn't worked. So now when Jane tried to bait him, Bosco just ignored him in the hopes he'd go away.

"What'd you get on Red John." It wasn't a question. Somehow Jane knew there was new info, and he said it with such calm conviction that Bosco couldn't help but stare.

"Now what makes you think I got anything?"

"The folder, you moved it when you saw me, protected it." Well, that was impressive. Bosco didn't want to admit it, but Jane picking up that there was new info from watching Bosco shift a folder across a room was remarkable. Probably just a lucky guess, but still.

"It's the one thing you'd protect from me." Fool boy. Red John was near the top of the list of things Bosco would protect from Jane, but he wasn't the _one _thing. When it came down to it, and they both knew someday it would, Teresa would be the one thing Bosco would protect.

"It's the cover-up that gave you away." Bosco wasn't entirely sure Jane was talking about the files anymore.

Bosco just replied with a, "Hmm." All right, maybe Bosco wasn't entirely over his 'piss Jane off so bad he'd leave' stage.

"So what is it?"

"It's ... none of your business. So go."

"You need to understand something. Red John doesn't make mistakes, he doesn't leave clues. If you have new evidence it's because he wants you to have it. The question isn't what does it mean, it's why did he give it to you." Bosco had to give this to Jane: he got more complicated. And not a lot of people got more complicated. Usually people got easier to understand the more you talked to them, but Jane just got more tangled. Now Jane spoke like he carried some profound truth about Red John that he was trying to communicate, but didn't know how to do it in words.

"That's deep."

"Tell me what it is, I can help you."

"Have you ever seen a crack addict when they're begging for a hit? You got that same look in your eye that they get."

"Oh, you've got me all figured out." Jane had a glint in his eyes, something stronger than the pure, blind rage that Bosco associated with him. Jane got distracted by a phone call from Van Pelt, and Bosco took that moment to study this new side of Jane. For all of Jane's self control, his hatred of Red John was stronger than his ardent need to be seen as composed, but it wasn't enough to figure out what was behind those eyes that could possibly mean more to Jane than rage.

Jane finished the call and Bosco questioned, "Bad news?"

"No, not at all."

Bosco grinned at the slightly unnerved look to Jane's face, meaning Van Pelt didn't come back with the information he'd planned on to make the case fit into the neat little package he'd made for it. This man didn't understand real detective work, real truth seeking the. He understood bloodlust "It's like you said, it's the cover-up that gave you away."

And Bosco was more than willing to be clear he wasn't talking about the call. "You're an addict Jane, you need help."

"You're making a mistake."

Bosco stood to dismiss Jane and casually said, "You can go."

Jane flitted out of the room and Bosco settled in for paperwork, thinking more about the sight of Jane slightly unhinged than the work in front of him. Then suddenly, somewhere between paragraphs five and six of the coroner's report, the pieces snapped into place.

Jane thought he was going to lose. If Red John didn't make mistakes, then Jane couldn't beat him. Jane wasn't reckless because pain hadn't taught him caution, he was reckless because he believed his days were numbered. The kid thought that stopping Red John would take everything he had to give, down to his own life.

There were other ways Bosco could have looked at this, ways that were kinder to Jane and saw his focus as devotion, or courage, but instead, Bosco chose to chock it up to rage. He was more messed up than Bosco had given him credit for. This was a new dimension to Jane, a new degree of psychosis.

But one thing was the same: he had to get Jane away from Teresa.

Jane had been thinking about their conversation, Bosco could see it in the extra shadow in Jane's eyes. Jane was probably thinking about how sometime soon he was going to be dead by the hand of Red John. Obviously not thinking a _whole_ lot about it, considering he had used a corpse to illicit a confession. Even though the corpse had been a spy, in Bosco's opinion few people deserved to have their bodies mutilated. And that used to be a position that Teresa shared.

Bosco was crossing the bridge above the Serious Crimes bullpen when Minelli found out about the abuse of a corpse. (And whatever Jane said, it was **ab**-use.)

"I don't think we did anything wrong. I think we should be commended." Bosco softened his step to catch more of the conversation going on below him. But for a moment he wished he hadn't. Bosco didn't want to hear Teresa defending that maniac.

Minelli held on to the silence for a moment and looked between Jane and Lisbon like this was a conversation he never expected to have. "Congratulations, you finally got her to drink the kool-aid. Check yourself agent, all of you." Minelli threatened the whole team, and though they all looked appropriately reproved, nothing would change.

But Jane didn't look proud. Minelli had just declared Teresa firmly in Jane's camp, too far gone to even demand that she keep him in line. And Jane wasn't proud.

Oh, he tried to brush it off by commenting on how nice her speech was, but his heart wasn't in it. Teresa noticed. Suddenly she'd stopped being above questioning in Minelli's eyes. Sure Jane, had done stupid things, but it had always been assumed that Lisbon had done everything in her power to contain him, but now that wasn't true. Something had shifted. To Minelli they were partners, and as badly as Bosco wanted her to run like hell as far and as fast as she could from Jane. She wasn't.

The man was suicidally crazy and ruining her career, and Teresa knew it. But she wasn't walking away. Jane was determined to die by the hand of Red John, Teresa was determined to either stop him or face the knife standing next to him, and Bosco was determined to find a burbon.

He burst into the office bearing donuts. Another stereotype Bosco was irritated Jane seemed to think he fit into. (Even though Bosco happened to love donuts, that wasn't the point). Jane just started lying through his teeth about how he got it, and he was going to leave Red John alone.

Bosco had decided that the best way to deal with Jane was to stay honest, and give no room for his lies to work. "I don't believe that."

"I brought you donuts. The international law enforcement symbol of friendship." The kid looked so damn ardent, like he'd actually had some sort of revelation where realized the damage he'd been doing and wanted to make it right. "I am trusting you to catch Red John. I am counting on it."

Bosco wanted to believe him. He'd seen his share of liars over the years, but there was something honest and determined in Jane's eyes, something that made Bosco want to ignore his sure knowledge that Jane was lying and just believe him anyway.

Bosco ignored both impulses, giving Jane no support but not ridiculing him until he went away. "We will catch him. Thanks."

Jane bade them, "Good hunting," and slipped out the door. But the moment Bosco broke free from Jane's gaze, his logic came back to him. The list of stupid things Jane had done, and the fact that people never really change, came slamming back into Bosco's mind, and he found himself hating Jane all the more for trying to pretend otherwise.

Bosco threw out the donuts and went back to the case, his lust to catch Red John doubling out of his rage against Jane. He wanted to be the one to put Red John in a cage just to deprive Jane of the chance to do it himself. To show him what good, honest police work could do.

Some part of Bosco was disgusted with himself for that desire, wondering how in such a short time he'd gone to being the sort of man who got pleasure from seeing Jane writhe. But Bosco tamped down his disgust and went back to work.


	3. Red Badge

To my dear Viktorija: for being the only person to review the last chapter. For this you deserve love. And cookies.

* * *

Lisbon's team was enjoying the sight of their boss looking so young and fresh. Like all kids do, they seemed a little surprised to find proof that their pseudo-parent had existed in a world before them. The fact that once upon a time Teresa had looked strikingly like Van Pelt (complete with a hair band) was causing them no end of entertainment.

Bosco knew what article her team had been reading. He remembered how young she looked being interviewed by the local paper. She was all discomfort and humility at being called a hero. She did her job, caught the bad guy, and didn't the attention that followed. If her team kept reading they'd find there was only one short quote from Teresa in the whole article, with all the rest coming from Bosco and her old squad.

More than that, he remembered that photo. She was clean cut, in a suit made to match the good ol' boys who had made up her squad. There as an innocence to that look, like she'd just seen the worst man was capable of but still believed in the basic goodness of humanity. She had dug her heels in and refused to take the picture, but somehow her partner had talked her into it, but that smile, the little half grin she pulled for the photo, that was all Bosco. He pulled a face at her from behind the photographer, and though he only earned a slight smile, Bosco was still proud he got that much from her when she was so nervous.

Today he walked in on her team discussing Teresa's history with McTeer, which Jane twisted into a chance to mock. Rigsby smiled at a Jane-style imitation of Bosco, and the other two weren't far behind, so Bosco took the chance to interrupt.

"Well that's pretty good. You should get an act together. Can you do Barbara Streisand?" Rigsby ducked his head behind his coffee mug, nervous at being caught enjoying Jane's teasing, but Jane didn't seem flustered.

"Don't tempt me."

Bosco turned his attention back to the member of the group he'd meant to talk to. The descent of silence across Teresa's team was an understanding they were dismissed for the moment. He would talk in front of them, but not to them. "So I heard about McTeer."

"Weird huh? Here we are after how many years?" Her team all shot one another sideways glances and looked any anything but the two senior agents. They had felt the shift in Bosco's mood, like they were intruding on a much more private conversation than it was.

"Too many. Have you spoken to Dreyer? He'd be my favorite."

"Dreyer Wheeland. Father of the last victim, Katie. 7 years old. Promised to kill McTeer on release." Of course, Jane took it upon himself to drag the whole unwelcome team back into the conversation by spouting off all the necessary details to bring them up to speed that they should have looked up when the case was rolled to them.

"Called him, he's on his way down from Moran."

"You're all over it. Let me know if you need any help, for old times sake."

Bosco turned on his heel and walked away, keeping the conversation more professional than anything her team was probably used to with Jane in the room.

Bosco heard Jane mutter something under his breath as he walked away, and though Bosco took Jane for a fraud, he couldn't help but wonder what piece of the puzzle about Bosco's past with Teresa that Jane thought he'd just discovered.

Minelli had called Bosco the moment the lab sent him the report on Lisbon's fingerprint. It took some mild bribery by Minelli, and staking an immaculate reputation by Bosco, but the CBI was allowed to keep the case.

Bosco heard spots of the conversation between Lisbon and Minelli when he told her she was off the case, but waited to enter until Minelli waved him in.

"Hey Lisbon, how bout this, huh?" It wasn't the best thing Bosco could have said, but it seemed appropriate considering the insanity of the circumstances.

"Bosco." She looked suspicious. He didn't like that. There was a tone to her voice like she having flashbacks to earlier in her career when Bosco would swoop in and make everything better, and she didn't want to be back in that place.

" He knows as much about the McTeer case as you do, it makes sense. And yes, I had to pull some strings."

"Thank you, I guess."

There had been a sense of comfort to Minelli's voice before, but now he went back over his words to cover himself and the affection he felt for Agent Lisbon, not wanting to appear soft, even when he was. "Now don't misunderstand me, if you're guilty I want you nailed. I just don't want the Feebs strolling around my offices asking impertinent questions." It was a weak lie, and they all knew it, but Teresa got the hint that Minelli couldn't look like he was on her side.

"Ok."

"So you understand, I have to ask you some questions now, nothing personal." This wasn't a real case to either of them. These questions were a formality until they figured out what lab error had put Teresa's fingerprints on that gun. He supposed he could have been more sensitive to her situation, but really, this was Teresa Lisbon. She didn't shoot McTeer, and if she had, she didn't need sensitivity. (Not to mention she wouldn't have left prints on the gun).

"Absolutely. Shoot."

But then, of course, Jane burst in where he wasn't wanted. "Hi everybody." Bosco suppressed a frustrated sigh, and gestured to Minelli that this kid was too impertinent for his own good. Jane rapidly turned his attention to Teresa, "Ah, well. Bet you wish you wore some gloves, huh?"

"Sorry, you have some input here?" Jane was still grinning to himself from the joke only he thought was funny, but the last thing Teresa needed at this moment was to have her problem complicated by Patrick Jane.

"No, just nosy."

"It's okay, he can stay if he wants to."

"I'll stay." Bosco forced himself to keep his mouth shut, fighting the urge to ask what the hell just happened. It wasn't Jane's place to be here. He standing there by her side, looking for all the world like he was her best friend and partner, like was supposed to be there.

Bosco decided it was once again time to ignore Jane. "Where were you Tuesday night?"

"I was at home, watching television. Nobody saw me." What was Teresa doing? She knew how to answer these questions. You make your answers clear and quick, giving exactly the information the questioner is looking for. Her answers were halting, like she didn't know what answers to give.

"What'd you watch?"

"Some reality show." She looked to Jane for the answer.

"Which?"

"Cooking show, with the man."

"Oh yeah that one." Bosco couldn't help but be sarcastic. Teresa being cagey wasn't helping her case, and he could only assume it was a skill she'd learned from Jane.

"The angry man."

"Oh I know the one, it's good. Cooking show. Tuesday nights. Angry man." Teresa spat out the only reference to a cooking show she could think of, and Jane was right on her heels, trying to spare her the pain of having to explain further.

They weren't going to get anywhere with Jane in the room, leaving Bosco with only the blunt approach. "So, I can set up a time for you to take a polygraph."

She looked between the two supervising agents against her and just shook her head, "No. I didn't kill McTeer."

"Nobody said you did yet." Bosco only had a moment to swear internally that he let that slip out before Teresa interrupted his thought.

"Yet?" She looked between them, then stormed out of the room, lost as to how they couldn't believe in her.

Jane politely excused himself, following after Teresa, and Bosco took another moment to curse. He was just doing his job, and somehow this had turned into a line in the sand, with Bosco on the side against Teresa, and Jane next to her.

Her team stuck their noses into Bosco's case, and though they'd done a good job of it, they were breaking every rule to do it. They were trying, but that wasn't going to help Teresa. She followed Bosco around the mezzanine and tried to talk him into letting her out in the field, but it was time for someone to take Teresa into hand. She was spiraling out of control.

"Lisbon, get this through your head. You're relieved of duty. You're not even supposed to be in the building!" Bosco turned his attention to her boys, "And you two clowns are way out of hand. Let me deal with this."

He took her arm and guided her away from Rigsby and Cho, not wanting them to witness what he was about to say. They wouldn't get anything from the words themselves, but Bosco felt an intensity simmering that shouldn't have witnesses. "Lisbon, look at me." She was fidgeting all over the place and couldn't stand to look him in the eyes.

"I'll handle it. Will you please trust me?" He meant it. Every word. He would do whatever he had to to look after her.

"I'm sorry, you don't understand. Later you will." She ripped away from him and her agitated fidgeting got worse. She looked like her bones were trying to jump out of her own skin.

"Are you medicated or something?

Then, something happened that Sam Bosco had never seen before. Teresa Lisbon yelled. Logically he knew she had to be capable of it, but some part of him didn't think she was capable of losing her calm like that. "I'm all right, I'm fine!" She turned her back to him and started shouting to the room full of agents beneath them. "What the hell is everybody looking at?!" Then, she just started screaming, ranting about being sick of everybody in a way Bosco was sure she hadn't since she was a child.

Teresa burst into her office and started pacing like she was in a cage. Bosco and her boys followed her down the stairs, and somewhere at the edge of his mind he knew Jane had entered the room and was getting a replay from the team, as though they thought Jane would stride into her office like a white knight and suddenly make the whole mess better.

But then Teresa snapped. Clean in two. She threw a chair through her office window, and the shock in her eyes said she wasn't sure how she got here. Bosco and Jane took off for her office, but it was Jane who got to her first and, to him she looked with all that pain in her eyes.

"Why is this happening to me?"

"It's all right. Let's go home."

Bosco was terrified for her. He'd been shot, beaten, threatened, but watching Teresa break was the most awful thing he'd ever seen. He reached his hand out and insisted to Jane, "I'll take her."

"No, leave me alone." She still couldn't look at Bosco. There was a hollowness to her eyes, and he'd never seen her look quite so small. Teresa was a fierce woman, but all the fire that defined her had burned up, leaving a shell of who she was.

She walked past them both and let Cho guide her home. Jane met Bosco's eyes as she shunned them both, and for the first time he and Jane had something in common. They were both scared, and neither one of them knew what to do. No matter what Jane had done before, that pain for her was real, and was enough to make him a friend to Bosco.

Bosco was getting sick of hearing about the exploits of dynamic duo that was Patrick Jane and Teresa Lisbon through the office grapevine. Together they'd swindled a confession out of the shrink and Bosco had to find it out the next morning from the security guards at the front door. Not to mention, Bosco was getting sick of taking a step towards trusting Jane and then finding out he'd been dead wrong about the boy, _again_.

Bosco got the full story from his team, who were impressed despite themselves. Jane and Lisbon had convinced the whole CBI of their ruse, and lured in a murderer from within their own ranks. No one exactly approved of the method, but no one could come up with a better way to have done it.

He walked in on Lisbon setting her office back up after the anarchy it had been through over the last few days. He observed her carefully set her chess pieces back in their places before he said, "I hear Minelli's billing you for the glass."

"It's only fair." She crossed the room back to her box of belongings on her desk, but Bosco kept his spot casually leaning against the door with his hands in his pockets. He knew where everything went in her office; what things she liked to have where she could get to them easily, what things were there for comfort, and what things were there to impress the people waiting. But Bosco knew in her mind he wasn't the man who was supposed to be helping her put everything back together. He wasn't the guy she trusted with that anymore.

"You know for a cop you made a very convincing lunatic. Jane must be proud." That thought was enough to push him into the room, determined to make sure she knew how else this day could have happened.

"Maybe it's not good police work, but I have to confess, I enjoyed it. Letting lose for once."

"Look, I'm glad you got cleared."

"I'm sorry that we couldn't let you in on the plan." To the outsider her response would seem like a non sequitor, but she knew him well enough to know this was the conversation he was looking for.

"You could have, but you didn't." She dropped her eyes away from his, not out of guilt, but not sure how to continue. He stepped forward, just close enough to lower his voice but no enough to make it inappropriate, and rested his hand on the box full of mementos that he knew so well. "You should know, that if it turned out to be you …"

She let the silence hang there for a moment before responding, "I know."

"Just so you do. Enough said." It was all he could give her, and it would have to be enough. He would've broken the law to protect her, and though he was grateful he didn't have to, she needed to know that despite everything, she could have trusted him like she trusted Jane.

And then the moment was shattered. In strode Jane ,all cocky confidence with Lisbon's faith in him and sure of having done some good in the world today. "I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"No. Night Lisbon." Bosco pulled his eyes away from her when Jane entered, breaking the intensity of the moment between them. He ducked out the door without looking back at her or looking at Jane.

Jane was the one to bid him goodnight as he strode down the hall to leave Lisbon with her new partner.

She trusted Jane. She trusted him enough to bring him in on this little scheme, which was probably Jane's damn idea in the first place. She trusted him with her life, her career, and her sanity.

Despite that, Bosco wasn't sure Jane knew what he meant to Lisbon, and for all his mind-reading techniques, Bosco was _sure_ Jane didn't know what _she_ meant to _him_. The level of faith Lisbon had shown in Jane was astounding, especially when Bosco was positive that the fear in Jane's eyes when Cho took her away was real. Sure, it was all according to plan, but some part of Jane was scared she wasn't acting.

Lisbon trusted him, and Jane cared for her. And he Bosco didn't think either one of them knew it.


	4. Red Menace

It's short, I know. But one can only do so much when Bosco isn't actually on screen. But hey, at least I gave you two chapters in exchange for making them shorter. ;)

* * *

Jane served justice, Bosco understood that now, and suddenly Jane's dynamic with Lisbon made much more sense.

Bosco served the law. Everything stayed clearer that way. Most cops would say they were on the side of justice, and they were, but only if you didn't get technical about it. Cops believed in the law, they believed that every criminal, no matter how foul, deserved a day in court. They believed that order and rules should carry the day, and that by those rules they could put bad men where they belonged.

Jane didn't serve the law, he served justice. Sure, it was easy to get them mixed up, but there_ was_ a line between the two. The law was clear and ordered, while justice did whatever the hell it wanted. That's why Jane liked justice, its only rule was finding an end. Jane would use mercy or vengeance, truth or lies, whatever it took to meet out the ends of justice. And he never felt a twinge of guilt about it.

Officers of the law felt the guilt. They felt the world shake when they ignored due process just to satisfy their need to find a just end. Sometimes bad men got away with bad things. It's the way of the world. Cops accepted that and did what they could to keep that number small. Deep down every cop wanted to be that rogue who threw off the system on behalf of that one victim they just couldn't let down.

But to be that cop destroyed good men. The day Bosco graduated from the academy, their speaker had quoted something that had stuck with Bosco for the rest of his career. 'You can't break the law, you can only break yourself against it.' Spend enough time enforcing the law, and you notice that the cops who ignore the law end up only destroying themselves in the process.

Just like every other cop, deep down Lisbon wanted to be the one who fought back. She wanted to find justice somewhere beyond all the rules and red tape, even though she knew better. But Jane could go there. He could break every last rule and let her feel like she'd done it herself, and think she hadn't broken herself in exchange.

This realization had come when Minelli got a courtesy call from the gang unit, saying that he and his Serious Crimes Unit might want to know that Von McBride's gang had turned on him. They'd left his body in the street as a signal to other gangs about snitching. Minelli denied that his unit had any involvement in sparking the biker rebellion. He lied, not out of any real desire to protect Jane, but to keep another department from interfering with his office. And it helped that Minelli knew they'd never be able to prove Jane was involved, so why trouble himself with speculation?

But the whole CBI knew it was Jane's doing.

Lisbon got hauled into Minelli's office for another lecture about keeping a tighter leash on Jane, but Bosco was infuriated that all Minelli did was talk. Jane needed to be punished when he went rogue. He'd never come to heel, but at least Minelli wouldn't look like a fool every time Jane just ran off and did whatever he wanted. Bosco actually harbored a suspicion that Minelli never tried to exercise any real control over Jane because he knew that Jane wouldn't listen, and then Minelli didn't have to deal with the fact that Jane defied orders if there were no real orders to defy.

After the lecture Lisbon had simply stomped over to Jane's couch and asked him what the hell he had done last night. Jane retorted with a sarcastic innuendo, and Bosco walked out of the kitchen as fast as could, pretending like he hadn't overheard.

Jane had been involved in a murder last night, and now he was flirting with Lisbon like nothing had happened, and would be completely forgiven. Jane had snapped the law in two and was tap dancing on the pieces, and Lisbon would pretend it never happened. She should throw his ass out on the street and never think about him again, but instead she would protect Jane, keep him close, and ignore this vicious turn to his character.

Lisbon was the law, but on behalf of this boy she was turning to justice. Von McBride deserved to die, no doubt about that, but Jane shouldn't have been the one bringing it about, and Teresa knew that, but she would ignore it.

The whole team had gotten too close to Jane, and he was ruining them all. Rigsby made Jane tea this morning. Jane usually strolled into the kitchen around 11:30 to make his second cup for the day, but Rigsby brought it to him before Jane had a chance to get up from the couch. Bosco was almost certain Rigsby had made it wrong, but he made it anyway, and Jane drank it anyway. It was Rigsby's attempt to say he was in some way grateful to Jane for taking a man like McBride off the streets, which Bosco couldn't really blame Rigsby for, given his past. (A past he had learned about by looking into the files of each of Lisbon's unit, just as background on the Red John investigation mind you, nothing to do with figuring out Jane's method for corrupting each of these well trained and very disciplined agents.) Jane knew that's what Rigsby meant to say, so he drank the tea without saying anything about the taste, which was his way of saying he was glad to do it.

Van Pelt and Cho had been subtler. Another unit had gossiped about McBride's death in the break room, though Bosco had to admit the team was way off base. A few of them held the notion that Jane had pulled the trigger himself. Cho had been about to walk into the break room when he caught the subject of their conversation. He went back to the bull pen, grabbed Van Pelt, and started up a conversation about the movie they'd seen last night. Cho was lying through his teeth about spending the night with the team, but Van Pelt caught on faster to the lie than he mother would have been proud of, and went along with it.

Bosco knew that Cho was loyal to Jane to a degree that he didn't think Cho would ever be salvaged from his association with Jane. Cho'd have to spend the rest of his career with Lisbon, and probably never get the chance to lead his own team because Jane had screwed him up so bad. But Bosco didn't expect Van Pelt, one of the most moralistic cops he'd ever met, to go along so readily, and so ably, with the lie.

They walked into the break room and got their coffee, all with Van Pelt saying how good she thought the movie was while Cho threw in a comment or two about how Jane ruined it for him by pointing out the plot holes.

They were good agents, he had to give them that. They kept their conversation casual, asked the other unit if any of them had seen the movie, and dropped in Jane's alibi to shut them up, all without raising an eyebrow.

Jane had orchestrated a murder last night. Four good agents had lied to keep him from going down on charges of conspiracy to commit. They all wanted a little piece of the rogue fire that gleamed in Jane. They all wanted to be the people who fought for justice, not the law. They were destroying themselves for the chance to be on the side of the Lone Ranger, and when he got himself killed for it, Bosco didn't think any of them would survive it.


	5. Red Scare

So, yeah. This had absolutely nothing to do with the episode. Be aware, I wrote about four drafts where Bosco overheard Jane's downer of a conversation with the widow, and if you'd like, I can post one of them. But none of them felt real or right. I hope this will suffice, despite venturing entirely off screen.

* * *

Bosco had been warming to Jane. He would never admit to it, but Bosco had watched the Serious Crimes unit burn through several cases in record time, and Jane had made some brilliant catches. Bosco didn't want to see Jane as anything more than the emotionally closed off rogue who was going to get the team killed, but he was getting there.

When you have Jane standing there, being brilliantly devious, and putting child molesters and cop killers in prison, it's almost impossible to loathe him. But Bosco did try. He held onto the reality that Jane was a dangerous man for as long as he could, but then he did a follow-up interview with the paramedics on hand for the Hardy incident, and Bosco couldn't hate Jane anymore.

She was a junior paramedic, being trained by the guy who had examined Hardy while he was cuffed to the stretcher. She was a kid, barely out of school, and though she'd seen some terrible things in her time on duty, she'd never seen a bullet rip through a man before; just the aftermath.

She had trouble looking up from Bosco's desk when she talked about it, a sure sign that she was still struggling to accept the sight of a living being slipping to a dead one. She knew what the living looked like, and she knew what the dying looked like. But to live with the knowledge that all those battered and dying people she dealt with had once been just regular living beings, was too much for her. She'd compartmentalized to deal with her job, pretended that there was the living and the dying, and those two paths never crossed. Hardy's death had burst that wall all to hell.

She narrated the events with as much clarity and as little emotion as possible. Her testimony had been tainted by a psychiatrist who had tried to teach her to deal with the pain by ignoring it, but Bosco would still be able to get what he needed. The girl calmly told him all about the proper procedure her supervisor had taken regarding Sheriff Hardy, and Bosco consoled her by assuring that they knew the paramedics had done everything they could. She wasn't here for that.

At that revelation the young paramedic looked up from the spot on Bosco's desk she'd fixed her gaze on since sitting down. "Really?"

"Really. You both did exactly what was asked of you, and no one could fault the two of you for what happened with Hardy. And if they do, they're an idiot."

She cracked a small grin, and gently asked, "My boss said you guys were just looking for somebody to blame."

"We blame Red John, hon, not the people there trying to save some lives."

She fidgeted slightly under Bosco's gaze, uncomfortable with being told she could let her guilt go. "So sir, why am I here?"

"You just keep telling me about what happened that night." And she did. Once she knew she was safe, she opened right up and told Bosco more details than he ever wanted to know. He didn't interrupt. He knew the part of the story he was looking for, and the part he was _supposed _to be looking for. He'd ask a few well-placed questions when the time came, and then the nice girl could spend the rest of her life pretending like that night never happened.

His team questioned why he went to the trouble to re-interview everyone he could, but Bosco explained that he liked to hear every testimony for himself, and get his own read on witnesses, unfiltered by anyone else. He also thought it would be good for the Red John witnesses and victims to see the new lead agent, develop a relationship with him, and know that any information they may find wasn't to be passed to Patrick Jane.

Eventually the girl got to the shooting, which was the real point of this meeting. It was still difficult for her to talk about, but she told Bosco exactly what he needed to hear. Lisbon had been with the victim, Hardy had broken loose, he shot another sheriff, turned the gun on Lisbon, and Jane took him down. But Bosco caught a twinge of something beyond the regular horror at seeing a human life taken, and he knew there was something the girl hadn't said for the books.

So Bosco laid a bit of himself out on the table, just enough for the girl to know what her information meant to him. Enough to make her guilt come crashing back down if she didn't share. Bosco told the girl about young Lisbon, about the first time she'd gotten shot on his watch. How he sat next to her three younger brothers in the hospital while the doctors stitched her back together. "I made a promise to her brother's that night, and it's a promise I intend to keep. She doesn't talk about that night, doesn't like to admit she put her partner in that sort of a situation, but I need to know if you know something I don't."

The girl stared at Bosco long and hard, struggling for the right words to tell the story. She drew a deep breath and muttered, "He was scary. I've never seen that look in a man's eyes before. I thought it was supposed to look like the cops on tv, and it didn't."

"Hardy?"

"No. Mr. Jane."

"Jane?"

"I saw him grab the gun and shoot. He shot completely wrong, and he knew he had no idea what he was doing, but he did it anyway. There's supposed to be this calm when somebody shoots. They've been trained, they've done it before, and they're doing their duty. It wasn't his job, nobody forced him to pick up the gun, and he did it anyway. Cops are supposed to be acting on instinct, like it's just what you're supposed to do when you see a gun drawn. This wasn't that. It was a choice. He chose to pick up that gun, he chose to fire, and he chose to kill a man.

"He _decided_ to end a life. This wasn't training, it was a decision. And I've never seen anybody decide to kill before."

Bosco asked the girl a few more questions, then let her go. It had been a long time since Bosco had heard a just killing told from the eyes of someone fresh to the fight. That moment where Jane had no walls up, no game to play, and absolutely everything to lose; that told Bosco more about Jane than he probably ever wanted Bosco to know.

Jane had chosen to kill a man to protect Lisbon. Try as he might, Bosco couldn't keep hating Jane after hearing that. Jane was Lisbon's partner, he'd killed to protect her, and he'd die to protect her. Damn boy probably didn't even realize he still had it in him to care like that.

Bosco could think better of Jane. He was sure he could.

At least, he was sure right up until he had his office swept for bugs that afternoon.


End file.
